DNBForum Sample Pack Competition WINNERS AND FEEDBACK!

SteveR94

PUNK ASS JUNGLE BUNNY
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Apr 4, 2014
That's it, the competition has now come to an end, and we can announce the winner as decided by me and @Manu Forti iiiiiiiisssssssss...............

@Henry Drum & Bass !!!

Well done good chap, let's all congratulate him and at the same time be jealous that he has won. Your prize will be sent to you shortly, we'll iron out details in PM.

And the popular vote, this one was close. Two entrants were constantly against each other, often overtaking each other. The poll has now been closed and it's a draw!!

@d-low & @Henry Drum & Bass are the popular vote winners! Henry's already won the overall competition, so this is extra bragging rights, but d-low, there you go, you get bragging rights too, the forum loves you!

Commiserations to our other entrants @Leniz, @scrTchs, @dj-paranoia, @Birkett beatz, and @Rounder RG. While you did not win anything, I hope this competition taught you new techniques and such which would enhance your production, so in that sense, you're a winner in that regard!

My feedback for everyone is as follows:

The melody while nice and quirky, I think could do with more depth, a chorus on that maybe? Very clever use of Kyuss barking throughout the track there, did make me laugh to hear him be used like that. Your drop lacks impact and the bassline is not very interesting in my opinion. Although midway through the first section, you change the bassline, using the electric sound and stopping the drums around there was clever, added a bit of interest and you regained my attention. Very glad your second drop has a switch in the melody, personally I would like more of a change, but the fact you thought about a change in melody to progress the track is something I approve. Also a well polished track, everything sounds nice and sharp. Advice to you would be to look on how to add more impact to drops.

Interesting intro with the filters on the drums, immediately caught my attention once I hit play. I'm glad that you had a stop in the beats in your intro to build up to the drop, the way you brought that along was nice. The constant filtering you're doing with your drums is really good, I like that attention to detail you had there, it keeps me interested. Bassline could do with more variety, I felt it was going through the pattern again and again a bit too long for my liking, a second bass sound from the pack may have worked to switch things. Breakdown is really nice though, my favourite bit of this. The second drop could have done with more variety I think: Yes you did slightly change the bass, but for me, it's not enough. Mixdown probably not as clean as the above entries, but still nicely done.

Solid structure, arrangement seems fine. Bit of an underwhelming track if I'm honest. While I see the aim for minimalistic vibes. The chord you have running through the track I think could have worked better if you changed the note here and there, like a chord progression. It just would give the track more variety and more direction, instead it can come off as flat. Nice use of that little melody through the track though. Personal taste, I always think that a track should have a variation in the second drop, when a track has the same first and second drop, while not awful, it's just something I think could have been improved. That goes with my earlier point of how the track needs more direction. Mixdown is well done though, track is nicely balanced. Advice to you would be to see how more minimal tracks use atmospherics to feel a bit more full.

For me personally, this one has the best use of atmospherics and ambience, from the onset you get the vibe of what you're trying to aim for very well, I definitely can't fault it in that regard. Bassline loses my interest though, it's a bit quiet and dull. I see you had a drum fill before the breakdown but I think your main section just needed more drum edits, it just felt like it kept going and I was really losing interest. It's a shame because the atmospherics are really good on this track, and in fact, the extra emphasis on them in the second track carries them forward, but it's just let down by the bass, more could have been done with that in my opinion.

This was the one that had the most interesting concept to me, this could have made a really good Jungle/Oldschool inspired track, but there were a number of things that could have been done better. You chose my personal favourite drums in the pack, and yes while they were already heavily processed and chopped breaks, I think you could have done more with them than pitch them and copy them. The lack of bassline on this track (apart from the slight sound every once in a while) is something that should have been looked into, I think using the sub to do a proper oldschool jungle sound would have really put this up there as a winner, but the lack of direction lets this down. Good use of the second break and the flutes to sort of bring the energy back down slightly before letting loose again. Kudos for the very different approach though, I'd advise just looking further in how to arrange tracks.

The little melody playing against the cymbals is clever, gives it a bit of quirkiness there, I like that intro arrangement. You seem to be using a lot of the sounds in the pack in different sequences which is good, it keeps me interested cause there's more things to look out for. However, I feel there is a lack of a solid structure, the sounds are there, but the track doesn't feel like it's evolving or progressing? The second drop tries to be more varied, which as I've said for previous entries is something I legitimately enjoy, and in fact, the attempt to switch things for a second drop is something that I can tell you were really trying to get across. However, the production of this lets you down, I'd advise that as your next step to improve.

First off, this is nice and loud, mixdown is good here. Very nice with the piano, I like the atmospherics that accompany it, it's not too overpowering. However the drums are overpowering in my opinion, could have done with softer drum sounds. I realise the pack is limited with drums, but maybe toning down your drums, particularly that snare would have helped. Bassline seems fine to me, works well with this sort of track. As said with previous entries, I would like to see more interest on drums, some edits here and there rather than just letting it keep going, otherwise for me it gets a bit monotone. I think your breakdown and moment of calm could have been longer, you could have used maybe another 16 to really flesh out your atmospherics and evolve the track more. Glad you took the piano out on second drop, just makes things keep going smoothly. Track deconstructing at the end is a nice touch as well, nice way to end things. I'd just look into ways to make drums more interesting if I were you.

Well done everyone!

If anyone wants to hear the entries again, it's in here!
soundcloud.com/dnbforum-competitions/sets/k2t-manu-sample-pack
 
Well done Henry your now the proud owner of a Yamaha TG100 Tone Generator, ive had it for years and when i first got i ripped a load of sounds from it and pretty much forgot about it... Compared to a lot of gear you can get your mits on this is pretty much a toy but may inspire you to make something truly unique or possibly a push to get more hardware? We don't mind in any case, ill be happy if you punt it on ebay for a case of lager and happily make some music with a feeling of merriment :lol:

Ill get that off to you as soon as we have your details.

Right so this was tough one, my initial thoughts reflected that of the forum with d-Low and Henry both being my top choices. I did however regard D Low a little better at first based mainly on his sound design on the bass. When it came to listen to all the tracks fully however i felt Henry's was superior in terms of what myself and SteveR94 look for in a track when we listen to demo's. The bassline sounded like something from early Bingo Beats, a good hook with depth and a few unexpected twists are what i like to hear in a track and we both felt you nailed that. Personally i wasn't too keen on the melody you used i felt it was a little lackluster and it may have benefited from more interest, still it fits and the other elements made up for it. Your use of my dog barking was good, a little jarring at first but i found myself anticipating the sound before long N1. Drums were a little thin but worked in context... The switch up in melody in second half worked better with the bass imo it would have been great to have heard this earlier and more often id say but thats really the only issue i had with the track. Again the bassline was the best bit for me, it demanded you listen if you gave the song a chance. Big ups!

Notable mentions...

d-Low

This was an excellent track, i thought the bass sound was excellent but didnt change enough for the minimal style you had gone for. The pad work was good but i felt a little too distant as was the mixdown and master which sadly let you down on this occasion. I think a boost in volume on this track and allowing the bass/pads/drums to be more sure of themselves were the main issue in particular with the low end. The pads could have been more interesting aswell although i did love the sound choice, a nice trip though and a thoroughly enjoyable track.

Rounder

Very cool piano and bass, mix/master is tight and nothing sounds out of place. Lovely track let down only by lack of interest for me. The drums sounded best on this though and defo a head turner when i first listened but it just didnt have the staying power.

Option

One of those BOC pads put to good use and done with great expertise, i love that pad and how it develops through the track but the drums and the bass just didn't do much for me. Drums were just a bit loopy and thin and the Bass as much as it worked sounded a bit muddy. Shame really i wanted to love this one.

Leniz

A solid track let down by the overbearing bass, the hook sounding pretty good but felt too strong and loopy perhaps. I felt the track needed another melodic layer aswell. Something to play off the bass would probably have worked. Again a shame since the bass line had its moments.


DJ Paranoia

This is genius in its own right just for the use of samples, choice of those drums is right up my street in fact i thought twice about handing these out since i liked them so much. Unfortunately using the samples as they are isnt enough and you needed to get in there and chop them up a little to make something that stood out. The lack of any bassline also dragged this one down.

Birkett

Everything sounds very quiet and its hard to make out what your aim was. In theory it sounded like it could have been pretty decent but a lack of volume and clarity makes this hard to enjoy. When the bass hook on second half comes in the track starts to move a bit more but i just cant hear the low end? I think some compression and limiting knowledge would help your prods come out more Birkett.



Ok, guys thanks so much for taking the time to enter, your all doing the right stuff with varied levels of expertise. Essentially getting stuck in and doing it is what counts and essentially how you will get good. I hope you all take the comments by myself with a pinch of salt. Im no expert (far from it) and in fact i tried to make a song along with you guys but work life and my own lack of inspiration denied me that pleasure. So again well done on finishing something rather unique.
 
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Entrants of the competition, now that Manu and I have put together our feedbacks, may we ask if this was helpful to you guys? I do hope people have learnt lots and appreciated this comp.

I will announce the next comp tomorrow, which will only start next month though.
 
Well done Henry your now the proud owner of a Yamaha TG100 Tone Generator, ive had it for years and when i first got i ripped a load of sounds from it and pretty much forgot about it... Compared to a lot of gear you can get your mits on this is pretty much a toy but may inspire you to make something truly unique or possibly a push to get more hardware? We don't mind in any case, ill be happy if you punt it on ebay for a case of lager and happily make some music with a feeling of merriment :lol:

Cheers Manu! Look forward to having a play around with the Yamaha! Having never really used hardware before should be fun. Had a little look on YouTube and looks like it has some interesting sounds..

Big shout to everyone that got involved. Bring on the next comp!
 
many thanks to @SteveR94 and @Manu Forti for this awesome feedbacks. I really enjoyed this competition and i will seriously take your advices. Thanks to all that have followed and commented my track, even if they didn't liked it. it is a great way to improve in technique, and i completely agree that i have to improve in bassline making (i tend to be a ''original loops addicted'' without editing them too much) and in arrangment (this is more a gear problem, but i can do better even with cheap things).
This time i got little time as i read about the comp very late, next time i will hopefully have more time.

last but not least, congratz to @Henry Drum & Bass , you really deserved the first place!
 
good stuff everyone, thanks for making this happen. Sorry I havn't got time to feedback on everyones track but they were all interesting to listen to, and props to everyone for there time and feedback. Looking forward to the next comp.
 
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